Riches Sought
If you would like to edit a couple of details,or the chapter organization or whatever in the story, feel free to as long as you mention it in the comments, but try not to completely change the plot! Thanks! -Heron the Mudwing Prologue There was no doubt the Treasureseeker would let this opportunity go by. Especially not since it was rumored to be an animus’ tomb. As soon as he saw it on the map and heard the story, he was in,and if you were in the room with him, you were doomed to coming with him. As it was with all his other adventures. So, he grabbed a couple sacks, packing a suit of armor (just in case), planned out every miniscule detail, then set of with 6 dragons- Oceanic, a SeaWing he had met at school, Mindseer, his brother,3 random messenger dragons who's names he didn’t know, and his mate, who would not miss this for the world, thinking of all the money. Tomorrow morning, they would set off and try to make history. Chapter 1 The cliff side was steep, so it was obvious when a cave entrance yawned in front of the nervous,excited, exhausted wing, and they gratefully landed inside. The first thing they noticed was an eerie, haunting song drifting through the air of the cave. It was beautiful- but it also sent an ominous rattling through the dragons' bones. Their entrance had awoken the animus's creations. Chapter 2 They walked into the room where the singing was coming from and found 3 stone dragons- a Jade dragon who had once been a SeaWing, a Carnelian dragon that used to be a SkyWing, and an Gold dragon that used to be a SandWing. They all had their mouths open in what looked like lost screams of terror, but instead a beautiful song rose from their stone lips. It was like the hum of a guitar and the whistle of a flute. The music was enchanting, not in the way that a song makes you want to hear more, or really not just that way, it was also physically enchanting you to turn into stone. Treasureseeker suddenly found himself with a stone talon and a wing drooping as Onyx stone crawled over it, claiming more and more of his way out of the tomb. Chapter 3 He shrieked and warned the other members of his group, but he turned and saw for one it was too late. The first to enter, Oceanic (the second in command and Treasureseeker's friend) was now just a Sapphire statue. He cried out in his grief but knew he still had to get out. As he stumbled to the entrance and idea struck him. He could only imagine the riches a statue like Sapphire could bring in. He ordered his friends to go on, leave, before they too were slain to stone. Each left, but reluctantly, and as they passed Treasureseeker they did a kind of bow to tell him goodbye, thinking he wanted to pay his respects to Oceanic, even though he knew surely it would cost his life. Chapter 4 But as Treasureseeker had imagined it, he would get so much treasure from selling the statue, he could sell it to an animus who would surely praise his great skill and when he asked how much it would be, Treasureseeker would tell him if he fixed his leg and wing and whatever else was stone by then, he could have it for just a couple of gems.Either way, Treasureseeker would be rich. He grabbed Oceanic and hobbled back to the entrance cave, his tail now almost completely stone. But it will be worth it for all that wonderful money he thought. Chapter 5 But alas, soon his great greed would betray him, and as it happened his mate was waiting outside the tomb, hearing of her husband's almost certain demise but not wanting it for herself. She gasped with joy as he returned, and he smiled to her, but the smile turned to a wince as his face was now mostly stone. Chapter 6 He looked at the statue and noticed how beat up it was by now. He had dropped it several times when various parts of him had turned to stone, and now he realized it would be of not much value. He nodded to his wife as much as he could. With a scrape of stone, he twisted and walked slowly back into the tomb. She gasped, and Treasureseeker didn't need to say anything, for his wife was a telepath. He simply thought, Not enough. Chapter 7 So yet again he scraped into the tomb, went over, and grabbed one of the statues, the Jade one he noted, as he turned his head so he could see, for one of his eyes had turned to a glittering blue sapphire. He carried it out and set it on the ledge, but by now only his wings were free. He lifted off, his wife now gone selling the statue, he lifted off, but as soon as he did, his wings were complete and he dropped down, down, down, into the deep pointed rocks below. Epilogue Rich, rich, rich- even more so when they found the fragments of Treasureseeker were made of onyx. They chiseled the stone and made it more valuable, or just sold it straight- either way, none of Treasureseeker’s crew would ever need any more gems. Yes, it certainly seems as though Treasureseeker helped all of his friends without knowing it. Because how could he? He was being sold in tiny pieces to anyone who would pay the price for him. And to this day, when flying past the Mountain of the Tomb, all can hear his stone corpse slamming into the jagged rocks and shattering into a million pieces. The moral of this story is do not be greedy. Or you might be turned into a statue and smashed into a million pieces. The End. Category:Fictions Category:Tall Tales Category:Stories Category:Heron the MudWing's Stories